Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, I have a NG Frilly that's almost a year old. Recently I've noticed that he has some kind of yellowish puss sack forming on his frill and above his eyes and some on his back. He seems more lazy and doesn't eat. It has come to the point where I have to tube feed him. He's been like this ever since his old light went out and I replaced it with a coil bulb for the meantime (those T-Rex bulbs are expensive!) Now he wasn't like this before and ate his dusted crickets fine before, and he's in the process of shedding right now .

But does anyone know what's wrong with him and how it could be fixed? Or is it something I can't fix on my own and needs medical attention?

The only reason I havn't taken him to the vet yet is because I am waiting for my paycheck so I can afford his check-up. If there is no cure that I can do I am taking him to the vet this friday.

If it the health problems are connected to the coil bulb you put in, it could be an issue with UV/D3 deficiency or something like that.

I know you are saving up for the bulb, but see if you can replace it immediately.

Also, I would take your frill to the vet.

best wishes

most likely it was from the coil uvb bulb those are so dangerious to reptiles. it almost killed my baby bearded dragon with in 1 day of putting it in he had puffy eyes and wouldnt eat and layed flat.
compact florecent are no good. and can cause some what of a sun burn effect and most likely was the cause for the puss...

this is a good herp health site:
http://www.anapsid.org/mainhealth.html

Now I am not trying to scare you, but I remember a story like that maybe two years back. The person was saying that thier frilled had pus like sacs around the frill, he said they continually got worse to the point where his frill wouldnt eat anymore. A few weeks after that his frill died. Definitly take it to the vet. Bring a fresh fecal sample along with you. Vet check ups are not that expensive anyways, around here they are only 50 dollars with a reptile specialist. So get it treated asap.

Or actually... now that I think about it, it might be the coil bulb. Ive read a few articles saying that those coiled ones are too concentrated to one area and dont spread the light like others do. People have said that they usually cause skin damage from too much uv if the reptile is not a desert dwelling species, and the frilled dragon is tropical. Are you using 10.0, because I heard that with the coiled bulbs, thats too much for a frilled.

So I called my local reptile vet. hes pretty famous here in Northern cali his name is dr. harkewicz. Anyways i sent him the picture of the sacks and he thinks its a tropical skin infection. of course hes going to have to see it in person. But i have a vet date scheduled for tomorrow. I just hope he gets better. knowing my frilly he seems like he has to drive to stay with me.

I just delt with it in my pair. It is related to husbandry, but I'm in the dark as to why it happened with mine. However, I cleaned all the infection off, exposing the skin layer below the infection. I then threw them outside in the Iguana pen and they've done extremely well, healing up within three weeks of when I noticed the infection. Finding out why thier immune systems are suppressed is a start and something that can't be diagnosed on the Internet. I can tell you that physical and mental stress is usually associated with bacterial and fungal blooms. It usually takes a while, but being stressed out all the time does take it's toll eventually

Well I took him to the vet and he was givin some shots and i am giving him antibiotics twice everyday for 10 days. He's looking a lot better now.

I believe it could be due to several things (well for mine anyways). Couple things i think it could have been is: habitat changed, light changed, food, stress, etc.

yeah i doubt it was a tropical skin infection concidering coil style UVB damages skin and give sunburns becasue the uvb light is so concentrated about 6 inches away from the bulb, its very common to get blisters from those uvb coil lights.